Security deposit

A security deposit (also called depozito or teminat in Turkish) is an amount or security instrument the lessor receives at the start of the lease to secure claims that may arise during the rental term (unpaid rent, damage compensation, tax and maintenance debts). Its legal basis in Turkish law is Turkish Code of Obligations art. 342.

For residential and roofed-workplace leases, three important constraints apply: (1) Cap: the deposit cannot exceed three months' rent. (2) Custody: it is deposited by the renter into a bank account and held in a bank account or as a fixed deposit of at least one year. (3) Refund: after the lease ends, if the landlord does not notify the bank in writing within three months that they have filed a lawsuit or initiated execution/bankruptcy proceedings related to the tenancy, the bank refunds the deposit once the tenant requests it — the refund is not immediate at lease end, but only after this three-month notice window closes (TBK art. 342/3).

For non-residential rentals (heavy equipment, event equipment, vehicles), there is no statutory cap; market practice is typically one month's rent or 10–30% of the equipment's value. There is also no bank-custody requirement for these contracts.

The security deposit clause should specify: (a) the amount or valuation method, (b) the form of custody (bank account, check, promissory note, blocked card), (c) the claims it can be used against, (d) refund conditions and timing. Akitle templates include these four components by default.

In practice, teminat and depozito (deposit) are used interchangeably — for residential and roofed-workplace leases, teminat is almost always taken in the form of a cash deposit. But teminat is the broader umbrella concept: a guarantor (kefil, TBK art. 581) or a bank letter of guarantee are also forms of teminat, with a deposit being just one instrument among them (see the rental deposit glossary entry). An advance rent payment (peşinat), by contrast, is not a form of teminat at all: teminat is a security that must be returned once the lease ends, while an advance payment is money already spent against a specific month's rent and is not returned (see the advance-payment glossary entry).